The Wizard

The Wizard is an African romance in which the magic and witchcraft of a wizard from the Amasuka tribe is brought into contrast with the miracles of Christian missionary Thomas Owen. The African Review first serialized TW in 1896 from 4 July through 7 November. This serialization featured 21 illustrations by Charles Kerr. J.W. Arrowsmith, Bristol and London, published the first UK book edition on 29 October 1896, which was not illustrated. The 1896 Longmans, Green, and Co., New York, first US edition featured 19 Kerr illustrations. The print history of Haggard's novels Black Heart and White Heart; The Wizard; and Elissa: The Doom of Zimbabwe is complex and interrelated (See pages for BHWH and Elissa). Longmans, London, includes all three novelettes in Black Heart and White Heart and Other Stories, published on 20 May 1900. BHWHOS includes 34 full-page illustrations by Kerr and F.H. Townsend. Kerr illustrated BHWH and TW (26 total illustrations, although the frontispiece is repeated), and Townsend includes 8 illustrations for Elissa. Longmans printed 10,000 copies of this edition. The P. F. Collier, New York, edition reprints the Kerr illustration titled "Look your last on me" as the frontispiece.

Further Reading

Pocock, Tom. Rider Haggard and the Lost Empire. London: Weidenfeld and Nicoloson, 1993. 103. Print.

Whatmore, D.E.. H Rider Haggard: A Bibliography. Westport, CT: Meckler Publishing Co., 1987. F20, 32-33; F23, 36-37. Print.